J'y suis jamais allé
by Bookspazz
Summary: Martin/Henry. Some first meetings are awkward, others are painfully awkward but sometimes they still turn out okay.


"Martin! You're late!"

"I know Carolyn I'm sorry my alarm skipped and there was a mess with the students outside and I-"

"No. Shut up. I don't care. I want you to sprint the walk round because the passenger's here and he has money and I want to see it again. If I don't, I will blame it on you and there will be hell to pay. We are leaving in 20 minutes. Shoo!"

Martin sighed. At least it wasn't raining. His horrible days usually involved rain. It seemed to be some terrible desire of the world to make sure all his horrible days would only get worse. But today was irritably sunny.

He sighed when, upon entering the plane, he heard two voices in the flight deck, only one of which he recognized. Of course, the apparently unbelievably rich passenger wanted some pampering and was clearly going to get it. Martin really could not be bothered today. Not even for a thousand pounds tip. Well… if it was actually that much…

"And this is the ground proximity warning and ah Martin! Lovely to see you've finally turned up." Even Douglas' normal sarcasm was not going to go over well today, Martin could tell. "Mr. Knight, allow me to introduce our captain Martin Crieff. Martin this is Henry Knight, our esteemed passenger for today."

The man who had been standing over Douglas' shoulder turned and smiled softly at Martin, holding out his hand. "Nice to meet you."

Martin tried not to grumble. Really what had this man done so far? Nothing, just come by a lot of money, something that Martin could really use right now. But he really wasn't so bad. He seemed rather shy and self-conscious, his voice was soft and his smile was small and a little lopsided. His ears were probably larger than the average and Martin had no doubt that Douglas would have something to comment on once Mr. Knight was out of the cabin. But really this man seemed friendly, sweet even and Martin smiled back as he shook his hand despite his foul mood. "Nice… nice to… to meet you too."

Martin was surprised at the way he stuttered and cracked a nervous grin.

"I… er… I suppose I've bothered you all enough so I'll just go back to my seat then." Henry Knight waved awkwardly as he walked out of the flight deck.

"Absolutely. Do enjoy your flight." Douglas pronounced as Martin slunk into his seat.

"Pre take-off checks?" Martin started but Douglas cut him off.

"What was that all about? Did Mr. Big Ears get you all flustered? Was it the thought of all that money he happens to possess and may or may not be tipping us with?"

"Flustered? I… no I wasn't…"

"No of course not I forgot, you stutter every time you speak to people obviously."

"I didn't-" Martin decided to drop it because he did, didn't he? "Can we get started?"

"Whatever you say. Captain."

After about three hours in the air, Arthur popped his ridiculous head into the flight deck.

"Hello chaps, sorry to bother you and I know that usually I'm wrong but Mr. Knight is showing all the signs of someone who is bored or nervous. You know, the signs I learned in my course on understanding people in Ipswich."

"Thank you Arthur. And what would you like us to do about it?" Douglas asked.

"Well umm I just thought I'd let you know. I was just thinking since Mum was really keen on having this passenger on a return flight that we should maybe, I don't know, keep him entertained?"

"Fine Arthur." Martin had reverted back to his original negative humor. "Go entertain him. Juggle for him or something. Maybe play charades."

"Yes! Absolutely Skip that sounds like a great id-"

"Really Martin? I know you're not in a very receptive mood but I do believe that money is in play and you are lacking aforementioned money. Perhaps charades with Arthur is not exactly the best way to keep our passenger cheerful."

Martin groaned. "Oh all right. We've already invited him up to the flight deck. I suppose one of us could go back there and check on him."

"Yes. One of us could. However, I am feeling very very comfortable in my first officer's chair and I'm trying to finish digesting the cheese tray so I think I'll let you do the honors."

"Oh Douglas really I-"

"We have a seven hour flight to New York. I promise I will take a turn if you really find it that torturous to talk to our passenger."

Martin sighed. He wasn't even in the mood to argue with Douglas today. He walked back into the cabin where Mr. Knight was seated in the first row of seats. He did look quite fidgety, constantly clenching and unclenching his fists in his lap. He looked around nervously and saw the captain walking over.

"Oh uh Captain Crieff. Everything all right?"

"Yes fine, I just wanted to see how everything was going with you. Everything going to your liking? In need of any refreshments maybe? We have alcohol we could provide or little salty crackers…"

"No that's… that's fine really." Mr. Knight kept on glancing away and then back up at Martin as if he were looking for some escape. His blue eyes were rather wide and nervous and Martin felt bad for putting him in such an awkward position. After all, if it was Martin feeling uncomfortable on a plane ride he would probably have wanted to be left alone. Mr. Knight seemed about as adept at socializing as Martin.

Martin sat down in the seat across the aisle from Mr. Knight and raised the arm of the seat carefully so he could face him. Sadly, Gertie was not in a cooperative mood and the arm snapped completely off the seat before it could reach the top. There was a shocked silence between the both of them for a few seconds before Martin let out a small groan and brought his hand to cover his eyes.

Then Mr. Knight laughed. He let out a small giggle that made Martin look up. Martin must have looked shocked because the man across from him stopped smiling and began to look uncomfortable, as if he'd done something wrong.

Martin stared at him rather blatantly though Mr. Knight didn't notice because he was too busy looking at his shoes. Had Martin noticed before how adorable this man was? Really there was something oddly appealing about his big blue eyes and ears like two kites on the side of his head. Despite his high forehead and stubble he looked young… almost as helplessly uncoordinated as Martin was. He had a small pink mouth that never seemed to close completely; his lips were always slightly parted as if he was waiting for a kiss.

The silence that now rang between them stood like a window pane. The cumulative awkwardness was practically unbearable and both of them knew that speaking first would be painful but the silence was already painful and if they did speak there was a large probability that it would become even more painful and-

"Sorry!" Henry said, a bit too loudly, shattering the silence like glass.

"No! Ah… No it's…fine. You haven't… done anything it's this bloody plane…" Martin tried to reassure him but clearly that was not his forte.

"Sorry I mean not about the plane I mean it's just a bit of a nervous giggle see I can't smoke on the plane and I didn't have a cigarette this morning it makes me a bit jumpy and I…"

"Oh! Yes fine no of course it's perfectly…" Martin trailed off. Somehow everything seemed better in silence. No matter how agonizing it was, talking was worse and Martin was bound to say something really terribly ridiculous in a minute just for the sake of conversation. "So… you're rich?" Yup, there it was. Terribly ridiculous and infinitely stupid.

"Yeah…" Henry didn't seem to notice though how infinitely stupid and rude it actually was.

"Right…" Somewhere there was an angel in heaven slamming his head against a wall at how uncomfortable this entire social interaction was.

Then both Martin and Henry both looked up at the same time and caught each other's eyes simultaneously. And they both burst out laughing.

"Oh God," Martin managed between giggles, "Sorry I just… It's all so awfully ridiculous isn't it?"

Henry nodded, his shoulders still shaking with laughter. "You're absolutely right. It really really is." They were both a bit red in the face when they finally regained and Martin was wiping tears out of his eyes. Henry's ears had gone rather pink at the edges.

"Thank you for that." Henry smiled.

"Sorry? Thanks for what? Breaking the armrest off the plane?"

"I haven't laughed like that in ages. It was… restful."

And they were silent again though this time it wasn't as hard to stand. It was quite nice actually, the two of them just sitting there.

Martin broke the silence this time though he was sorry to see the moment go. "Sorry I've… I've got to get back to well flying the plane and all that…  
"Yes! Yes of course." Henry was still smiling at him as Martin stood up to go.

"I'll uh… see you when we land." Martin sighed at walked back up to the flight deck. _I'll see you when we land_ well obviously he would see him what a stupid _stupid _thing to say.

"Martin, are you okay?" He'd sat down in his chair and Douglas was looking over at him with mock anxiety. "Did the mean little rich boy tell you to go away?"

"No of course not why would you-"

"All right, all right don't get your panties in a knot. Movie titles that start with 'R'"

"Ah… What?"

"I believe I was offering to start a word game."

"Oh uh right…Rambo."

"Good. Rear Window."

And so it went for a further four hours though Martin was really not at the height of his word game skill. He kept going quiet and forgetting that he was playing anything at all, instead running the conversation he'd had earlier over and over until he had it memorized and had bored Douglas to tears.

Douglas took the landing and when the plane came to a halt he turned to Martin and looked at him very seriously.

"Martin. If you do not give that man your number or a date and time for coffee I will make your every waking moment a living hell."

"What why I've… no idea what you mean!"

"You know exactly what I mean now go before I tell Carolyn what you did with the box of chocolates Herc asked you to give her."

"Yes all right I'm going!"

And he actually did, blocking Arthur's path before he could get to their passenger first.

"Ah umm Mr. Knight we've arrived in New York and-"

"Henry." The big eared man said as he stood up.

"What?"

"You can call me Henry."

"Right er… Henry I just wanted to tell you I hoped you had a lovely flight and it's been great having you on board so we hope you come again and all."

"Thank you… Martin." Martin blushed.

"Umm I was just er… wondering if you'd like to have tea or, or coffee, with me, er sometime?"

"Yes." Henry said rather too quickly and Martin almost thought it had been his imagination before Henry repeated his thought. "Ah yes that'd be …lovely. Do you have a pen?"

"Sorry?"

"Something I can write my number on?"

If Martin's face wasn't tomato red from blushing already it surely was now. He grabbed a chewed up pen from his right trouser pocket and a tissue from his left, both of which he then handed rather sheepishly to Henry who wrote the numbers quickly. He was blushing almost as much as Martin except it wasn't so much his cheeks but rather his ears that had gone a very lovely shade of pink.

"I'll er… be in touch…" Martin said as he led Henry to the door.

"Right yes…" They shook hands again rather messily as Henry exited the plane. "The trip was really… very nice."

"I'm glad you er… enjoyed… it. Er…Bye."

"Bye."

Though their departing words were hardly poetic, Martin still had a silly grin on his face that lasted even after he'd lost sight of the pink ears. Douglas clapped him heavily on the back. "Well done. Now don't waste the opportunity or I will follow up on my threat."

Martin smiled up thankfully at Douglas because it really had been a nice thing to do.

"Wow, Skip! You're practically doing my job now, waiting on the passengers and seeing them out the door and everything!" Arthur gushed.

Martin kept quiet and spent the next hour in a dreamy bliss and the next three days panicking over when he should call Henry. Though he did eventually. Thank goodness for that.


End file.
